


Until I stay.

by Shulik



Series: The re-imagining of Harry Potter. [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Multi, Slytherins being nefariously sexy, Snarky Pansy, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-28 09:23:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/306385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shulik/pseuds/Shulik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Faith Lehane, still striving for redemption, had one chance to get things right. One chance to fix mistakes, right the wrongs of others.</p><p>That was of course, until she found herself drafted into Potter's merry gang, fixed some bridges, made a few enemies and ended up building a life for herself in the most unlikely place on earth- Hogwarts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Neville Longbottom was the twitchy sort of Gryffindor.

He wasn’t heroic and stalwart like Harry Potter who practically radiated good-natured bravery. Neville wasn’t hot-headed like Ron who seemed to get off on fighting. He wasn’t the genius sort of Gryffindor like Hermione Granger who was practically a walking encyclopedia and not afraid to show it. He wasn’t a sodding sex god like Seamus Finnigan who it seemed had slept with everything that had two legs and there were rumors that the Irish boy had gotten to a few of the lake’s mermaids too.

No, Neville was just Neville.

He was loyal to his friends, he was scared shitless of Professor Snape, excelled in Herbology, came from a deeply loving family save for the deep undertone of sadness that his every day seemed to be filled with.

Neville wasn’t really remarkable in any way except for the fact that he had the innate ability to be in the _right_ places at the _right_ times for extraordinary things to happen to him.

He was walking along to Greenhouse six and thinking of his utter normality when a girl fell on him from the sky. She was smaller than him, but then again that wasn’t hard especially since his body had started turning into hard mass when he turned fourteen. That was the first impression he had gotten of her, her smallness and long dark hair that covered the both of them as she landed on him with a loud, resounding “Fuck!” that made Neville blush hotly.

That automatically eliminated the whole of Hufflepuff house, they hadn’t been heard to curse since Diggory’s death when a distraught yellow and black clad boy had uttered the words “fucking death-eaters” at his funeral only to be amen-ed by the rest of his loyal and hard-working brethren.

Neville opened his eyes only to be confronted with the sight of a spitting mad brunette girl about his age who sat straddling him. He blinked, just in case he had gotten concussed but when he opened his eyes again- she was still there, still mad and still inappropriately gripping his torso between her surprisingly muscled thighs.

Neville flushed yet again.

Her light brown eyes were wholly unfamiliar and the more surprising thing was the fact that she kept on sitting on him as she raged at some unknown point in the sky.

She raised her fist threateningly at the innocuous white clouds and was now shouting “just you wait until I get ahold of you fucker! You’re going to wish that B was here Whistler! I’ll rip your arms off and shove them so far up your ass you’ll be able to tickle your tonsils from the inside-out! I’ll rip your spine out and wear it as a belt! I’m going to use your worthless hide for a new winter coat!”

Neville shuddered at the onslaught of disturbing imagery that her ranting brought to mind. He gave a subtle cough and cringed when she glared at him “What?!” she snapped out.

“Um,” Neville tried to be as delicate as possible given the distinct possibility that she was mentally unstable, “you landed on me.” He gave her an encouraging smile.

She glared at him harder “so what, yo?”

“Well,” Neville had now become aware of several things.

One, his spine was feeling the effects of having another person- no matter how small, land on him. Two, she was sitting precariously close to his privates and her wriggling around was having a very interesting effect on that area.

He was fourteen after all.

And three, he could see Seamus and Harry staring at him strangely out of the corner of his eye, Harry had his wand out and was pointing it at the girl's back- silent and wary while Seamus was blatantly checking out the girl's arse. Neville could also see Hermione’s bushy haired form running towards the castle, probably to get Dumbledore or somebody of the sort.

“You’re still sitting on me,” he finished lamely and flinched when the brunette bared her teeth at him. She got off him though and strangely enough, she began examining her own body.

Neville scrambled to his feet, somewhat more clumsily than the fast-moving girl that had been sitting on him not two moments earlier and tried to look like he wasn’t desperately interested in tracking her movements. She was clad in a black t-shirt of the sort that the muggle-born students had taken to wearing around the castle, a pair of tight trousers that made Neville blush even deeper and some black lace-up boots.

“Oh man!”

His blush was positively fiery now. The brunette girl was staring despondently inside her shirt, she seemed intent on examining her chest area. “This fucking sucks donkey ass! They had to take my tits away…” she moaned. She lifted her head to meet Neville’s bright crimson face, “how old are you?”

“Fourteen,” he croaked out.

The brunette scowled and went back to staring at her chest, she looked deep in thought “well, based on the size of the teenage cleavage over here- I’d say I’m about the same age.” She raised a fist to the sky “you better be retired by the time I die in this dimension Whistler! You know how long I can hold a grudge!”

She huffed and began looking around her with ever-more increasing interest. She turned to Neville “magic castle?”

“Um,” he cleared his throat “yes?”

She grinned and he blushed for what seemed to be the twentieth time that he had done so, since she had literally dropped into his lap. “Don’t worry yo, I got the full debriefing before agreeing to the whole new-life shtick,” she raised her gaze to the sky and shouted “but I was never told about the whole going through puberty thing again!”

Neville took a step back. Just in case. Gryffindor or not, but shouting crazy persons were best avoided until one knew the exact nature of their insanity.

She raised an eyebrow at his shuffling, “don’t worry kid, I’m sane.”

She winked “mostly.”

“Ha,” Neville gave a weak laugh. And now the highly crazy girl that fell out of the sky was calling him kid, how utterly humiliating.

She turned to him and crossed her arms in front of her much maligned chest, “so where’s this Dumb-as-a-door dude I got to talk to? I have a letter from some chick named Ariana,” she frowned “nice girl. Pretty crazy though.”

Neville swallowed and leaned around her to see the white-bearded figure of the headmaster hurrying down the slope. “He’s coming,” he mentioned.

“Cool beans,” the girl bounced. She began tapping her foot in place, “so what’s fun to do around here?”

“Uh,” Neville tried thinking of something. Anything to say. What came out was so deeply embarrassing that he promptly wished he had stayed silent “I like messing around with the plants.” Oh Merlin.

She stared at him weirdly.

Neville wished for the ground to open up and swallow him whole, he wished for the sun to stop shining and the Giant Squid to flop it’s giant body out of the lake. Anything to distract from the fact that he basically called himself a plant pervert.

“Well,” the girl said as she stared at him, “to each their own I guess?”

“Hah,” Neville gave out another weak chuckle “I was just joking before,” he tried rectifying the situation. By the disbelieving look on her face, he had probably just solidified his position as a weirdo and a kinky one to boot. Why couldn’t he be smooth like Seamus? Or at least quietly mysterious like Dean or Harry? Damn it, he would just settle for being funny like Ron.

Though Neville desperately hoped that his situation with the ladies would go a lot better than Ron's, who had been arguing with Hermione since the beginning of the year, it felt like, instead of just asking her out and getting it over with.

The headmaster had now reached them and Neville gave out a loud sigh of relief at Dumbledore’s arrival. Let him now deal with the strange girl still giving him weird looks.

Dumbledore offered his hand to the girl with that now familiar twinkle in his eye and a gentle smile on his face “Good morning my dear, I’ve been hearing strange rumors about a young girl dropping out of the sky.” The twinkle was now almost a sparkle “would that be you?”

The girl grinned “That’s me, always gotta make a big entrance.” She moved to Dumbledore’s side, “we need to talk Dumbles.” She then roped her arm through the aged wizard’s elbow and began propelling him to the castle. She stopped though and turned back to Neville and shouted “I’m Faith by the way!”

Neville who had just been watching her leave with a slightly sinking feeling, smiled at that. He leaned forward and yelled back “Neville!”

Faith grinned and gave him a thumbs up, shouting “I’ll see you soon Nev!” She then began pulling Dumbledore back towards the castle. Neville grinned as he saw the headmaster give her a faintly disgruntled look as he was forced to speed up his normally distinguished gate, she was certainly enthusiastic if slightly scary in an insane way.

Dean had ambled up to him and poked his ribs “Who was she?”

Neville glanced at his fellow Gryffindor and friend “ _That_ was Faith.”

“Who’s Faith?” Dean frowned. “And did she really fall out of the sky?”

Neville had never been particularly mysterious but he had always been good at keeping things that mattered close to his chest. He looked at Dean who was still staring at Faith’s retreating back, he glanced over at Harry who was having a furious whispered conversation with Hermione who was still wheezing a little from her run. And Neville said nothing. He just smiled at his gobsmacked friends, picked up his bag that had fallen away during the whole collapsing under a cursing teenage girl thing and he began his trek back to the greenhouses. Neville may not have been very special in his group of friends, but he knew what it meant to have priorities- and the greenhouses were the first priority right now.


	2. Boggarts

FOURTH YEAR

And his boggart is his mother screaming, screaming in such wild abandon that Neville can’t do anything but remind himself to breathe. That this is not real. That this happened a very long time ago and his mother is safe. Well as safe as she can be in the magical maladies wing of St.Mungo’s and she’s warm and she’s happy in the only way she knows how to be and she’s not alone, she’s got his dad. And Neville knows this, his logical mind is screaming at him to banish the damn thing- but his heart has stopped and his breath is sitting painfully somewhere in the vicinity of his lungs and Neville just can’t move .

The class is frozen behind him and Harry is moving to help but then Faith is there, she’s there and her hand is burning hot on his elbow and the boggart is turning to her and it’s changed. It’s a small blonde girl, maybe a year or two older than them- and the sneer on her face is ugly, her eyes are flashing hazel fire and her voice drips disdain as she hisses at Faith “you’ve failed _F_. Just like you always do, you’ve fucked this up.”

She cocks her head and smiles maliciously “How does it feel to be the screw up yet again?”

That isn’t fair, Neville thinks. Faith hasn’t failed at anything. She’s surprisingly smart though she will never be the genius that Hermione or Malfoy are, she’s witty though in a completely barmy and pervy way- she’s very, very good.

Neville swallows at the look on her face, the slightly fearful, pained and defiant gleam in her eyes and is about to cast his own Riddikulus when Harry steps forward and does it for him. Harry, whose eyes are hard rocks of emerald stone, whose heroism will be sung about for eons to come- he approaches the both of them and he says “It’s alright guys. None of that was real.” Even with the events of the Triwizard Tournament, even with all the tasks he still has to accomplish- Harry makes time to be the savior, the hero for his recalcitrant classmates.

“It’s real,” Faith whispers only loud enough for Neville to hear. He turns to her with a puzzled look on his face and the anguish, oh the anguish is almost too much to bear. “It’s always real,” she says and walks out of the classroom with a slow measured step that echoes in the silence of the class’s silent vigilance.

He finds her in an empty alcove up on the seventh floor, hidden behind the statue of Rodrig the Magnificent and a painting of Rowena Ravenclaw playing chess with Helga Hufflepuff. Her knees are drawn to her chest and her eyes are swimming with unshod tears as Neville drops to sit next to her.

“Are you alright?” he asks and feels stupid almost immediately. Of course she isn’t alright, this is the only time that he’s seen her upset since that rant when she fell on him from the sky.

“I’ll be fine kid,” she says and Neville realizes almost immediately that she still thinks of him in those terms.

Kid, child, Neville.

He feels sad for a moment because those words usually aren’t associated with the kind of words he has for her. All in his head mind you, but in his mind- he calls her beautiful, he calls her love and he calls her lover. But she’s upset, and her hands are shaking so Neville takes one of them between his two and starts massaging it gently, the way that he knows she likes. Eventually the shaking stops and she drops her head on his shoulder and her breath evens out. And Neville’s big crush falls asleep on him.


	3. Chapter 3

FIFTH YEAR

Neville is covering Luna who’s running as fast as her tiny body can propel her towards the exit. Faith is on the other side of the blonde girl, the three of them are together and they’re running. The Death Eaters are behind them, they’re gaining, he can practically feel Lucius Malfoy’s breath on the back of his neck and yet he has to make sure that they all get out of here alive. He has to, he has to.

And then Tonks is there, she’s herding them, covering their heads as they run, run as fast as they can. His heart is thudding hard against his chest and he can feel it’s painful tries to escape and Neville has never been more terrified.

“Damn it!” Tonks hisses, “where’s Faith?”

His heart stops beating then. He looks around wildly and his eyes find the wild, curly hair floating around the girl he’s loved since last year. She’s dueling Dolohov and the crazy girl is laughing wildly as the hexes fly and the air is smashed with the sounds of breaking glass.

“No,” he whispers and turns back to run to her, to help, to do something, anything before she gets herself killed. Because Neville wouldn’t be able to take that, because he won’t be able to keep on breathing if she doesn’t. He’ll break.

He feels his body’s heaviness more sharply than he’s ever had as he runs towards the duelists.

“Avada Kedavra!” Dolohov screams and Neville doesn’t allow himself to think before he’s yelling “Expelliarmus!” and he’s praying, praying to whatever deities are listening that it works because Faith’s eyes are wide and his steps are slow and Dolohov’s wand is clattering down, down to the floor. He can breathe again, he can breathe because Dolohov is disarmed and Faith has just leapt at him with a truly beautiful spinning kick worthy of some muggle martial artist, kicking him in the face with a resounding crack, watching with glee as the large Death Eater drops. And she’s okay, she’s breathing, she’s alright and the damn idiot has an actual smile on her face.

He’s breathing heavily as he stares at the large man’s body on the floor and the gash on his forehead that has the vague imprint of Faith’s boot.

“What the hell were you thinking Nev?” she snaps and for the first time in his life Neville yells at her.

“He could have killed you! Why did you go back?” he screams and her eyes are shocked at his tone.

She’s about to respond when they hear Harry’s anguished howl. They turn in unison just in time to see Sirius Black disappear behind some weird shimmering substance, and Lupin is holding Harry back as Bellatrix disappears after having killed her own flesh and blood.

“No,” Neville hears and he turns back just in time to see Faith drop to her knees. Her eyes are glued to the scene in front of her as she whispers “I failed.”

He doesn’t question it, doesn’t ask himself to explain her reasoning, her words. Because some deeper hidden instinct takes over, some need to make it better and Neville drops down next to her and pulls her into his arms. Her body is slack, missing the usual passion that burns through her veins and she’s like a limp rag doll that his grandmother used to have in the attic. He holds her close, trying to absorb some of her pain and he doesn’t understand why the death of Sirius Black affects her this way but Neville feels her breath hitch and he is there to wipe the tears that fall down her cheeks.


	4. Chapter 4

SIXTH YEAR

The common room is awash in house colors, people are celebrating and life goes on. They’ve won the Cup even without Harry there, they’ve won, they’ve won. The mantra seems to thrum through the room, butterbeer is flowing freely and Neville has just enough of Firewhiskey to give himself the courage he needs to do this.

Harry is snogging Ginny for all he’s worth, they practically look entwined into one person, all limbs and faces and hair smashed into one entity. People are cheering for them even as Ron storms out and Hermione follows his angry bellows of belligerence at the signs of his sister dating.

Neville smiles as he navigates the room, people wave at him and shout their congratulations and he can’t help but feel their jubilation flowing through him too.

He’s looking for Faith. Because he feels it, this is the night, the one moment where he’ll be able to tell her about his feelings and she’ll respond and they’ll be happy. Neville is a romantic, an optimist even with a pessimist’s world view and he has to believe that this night will end with him happy.

“Have you seen Faith?” he asks Romilda and she glares at him as if it is his fault that Ginny and Harry are finally together. Neville gives her one of his gentle smiles and the girl’s glare relaxes into something more acquiescing.

“She’s up in the boy’s dorms with Seamus,” Romilda says with a sigh and an unreadable look.

“Alright, thanks,” Neville smiles at her.

She gives him a cough and that look again as she says gently “I wouldn’t go up there if I were you Nev.”

But Neville is already walking away, rehearsing the speech he’s planned and fingering the small winter-white lily in his pocket that’s Faith’s favorite. He runs up the stairs two at a time and opens the door just in time to hear the moans. Some part of him, the part that’s kept him detached throughout all the St.Mungo’s visits, the part that’s kept him sane through Snape’s potions tells him to turn back. To leave, to close his eyes and turn away. But he can’t, because Neville is a Gryffindor deep inside and he’s never met an obstacle that he’s avoided yet.

He finds Faith on Seamus’s bed, the curtains are open around them. She’s naked, her back is to him and he can see the outline of Seamus’s body underneath her. She’s moaning as she rides him, moaning as she writhes and sighs and joins her body together with fucking Seamus! who’s never met a girl that he couldn’t screw and Neville thought she was better than this. Yes- she hisses as he bucks up into her with a hard slam and Neville’s fingers tighten around the lily’s petals in his pocket.

He’s strangely numb as he turns around still silent and goes back down the stairs. He passes by the revelers, exits through the portrait hall and leaves for the fresh air of the outside.


	5. Chapter 5

SEVENTH YEAR

It has taken the return of the Dark Lord, the overthrowing of the Ministry and the disappearance of the wizarding world’s last hope to make Neville talk to Faith again.

Slowly the two of them rebuild their relationship from the ground up and only he knows why it was destroyed in the first place. He had stayed silent about seeing her and Seamus together, he had never mentioned what happened to either one of them- but he stopped talking to her that day. Maybe if Neville was a better man, maybe if he was stronger- he would have been able to take solace in her friendship, he would have been able to lie to himself that it was enough . But he’s not, he’s really, really not. He’s just a young man, scared and jealous and hurt and heartbroken- Neville is a mess of emotions and for a very long time afterwards, he has to stay away from the Common Room because just the very sight of Seamus's face makes Neville want to break things.

But then the world collapses around them and the fire of his betrayal takes a back seat to survival.

Harry, Ron and Hermione are gone- just like they said they would be and the world still has to keep on spinning. Hogwarts still stands but it is taken over, ruled by the sadistic Carrows and a Snape that can be surprisingly sympathetic. Maybe it’s all ploys to get into their good graces, maybe they’re just biding their time until they can kill them all- but Neville has learned to play on everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

He’s become what he always secretly wanted to be, Neville is a leader.

He organizes raids, stages small coups and rebellions- Neville becomes an expert in guerrilla warfare. He wages battle on the establishment under it’s very nose and he becomes very, very good at what he does. He is punished, oh yes is he punished. His nose gets broken several times and it’s Luna’s medical spells that piece it back into one slightly misshapen whole. He is beaten, he is Crucioed. Neville is what he needs to be.

Every day that he crawls back into the Room of Requirement is another day that he’s survived to spit back in the face of adversity, to tell it that it’s wrong, that it’s being changed from the inside out. The girls fawn over him, they worry over his cuts and bruises and their fingers light as air skim over his skin.

Faith is never one of them. She sits in the corner of the room and she watches his reports with heavy lidded eyes. She watches Luna heal most of his injuries and then she disappears and Neville’s eyes track her exit.

They watch each other covertly and it’s only Luna and Ginny that see it. They share sad looks at the two’s refusal to be outright and honest with one another.

Ginny usually follows Faith out and the two of them don’t come back until the early morning when the redhead leads the way back to safety. Faith’s eyes gleam with a particularly manic shine and her fists are bloodied so badly that it takes Luna about twenty tries to knit the skin closed properly. And Neville can close his eyes for an hour before going through it all again because she’s back. She’s safe and alive.

The culmination to months of planning and hoping comes suddenly one day when Harry pops back into their life through the portrait hole. He is thin, almost malnourished as he watches them with weary eyes from a hard-lined face. They are all so much older than they should be, so much bigger than everything around them.

The battle rages around them with explosions, hits and rock-collisions. Harry is running around madly as he searches, looks for the last horcruxes in the heat of battle. Neville is dueling and he can’t tell anymore who’s on the other side of him, all he can do is just fling the spells and duck. Months of speed and endurance training with Faith have paid off, he isn’t hurt too bad.

He finishes off Nott senior and is running towards Lavender when he sees Faith hurl her body at Fred Weasley. He’s so surprised that it takes him a second to realize that she just saved his life. And that’s she’s hurt. Her head is bleeding as she’s helped up by a furious George who’s screaming at his twin for being so fool-hardy. She’s swaying as she touches her temple and her hand comes back stained with thick, black-red viscous blood.

Neville picks up speed and is there just in time to catch her falling body. The blood is everywhere, it’s soaking through his sleeves and her eyes are glazed as she whispers “I didn’t fail, I saved him Nev.”

He can feel hot tears choking him as they run down his face and he brushes back a lock of lank, dirty hair from her forehead “you did good Faith, you did real good.”

He raises his face and screams, screams for somebody- for help, for anybody. But the battle rages around them and now Voldemort’s voice is taunting them from the outside. Faith’s body goes slack, heavy in his arms and he screams again for somebody to do something. He touches her lips with his own and whispers furiously “don’t you dare die on me. This isn’t over, we’re not done yet Faith.” His tears fall down to her closed eyelids and for a stupid moment he can’t help but wish that he could heal her pain with his own.

Somebody drops next to him and he whips his wand at them, the shout almost out of his mouth before he realizes that it’s Luna. She has a deep gash on her cheek and her hair is tied back with her usual radish red hair-tie. “Come on Nev,” she says business like and he has to stop himself from his natural reaction of wanting to cradle Faith closer to him. She’s just too slack, she’s just too heavy and he doesn’t want anybody else touching her.

He opens his arms and Luna inhales in one deep hiss, “Merlin,” she breathes out. She starts running diagnostic spells on Faith and Neville doesn’t breathe as he waits for her pronouncement.

“She’s breathing,” Luna murmurs and his relief cuts through him bone deep. “But she needs help,” Luna lifts her otherworldly gaze on him. “Her body is in pretty bad shape Neville,” she bites her lip “she may not make it."

Neville turns his gaze back to the girl that he's been in love with for the last three years. He bends over and whispers into her ears "me and you? We still have so much to go through together," he kisses the weak pulse on her neck "we're not done Faith."


	6. Chapter 6

_1 Corinthians 13:1-8a and 13  
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing._

 _Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres._

 _Love never fails....And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love._

 

Both muggle and wizard philosophers have written on the subject of love extensively. They have tried defining it, qualifying it- they have done everything they could to find what constitutes love. Harry Potter has been saved by the power of it, he has a permanent reminder of what love is etched into his skin.

At that moment though- Neville knows what it is.

He looks into the mirror calmly, the man staring back at him is pretty different than what most people must have expected him to become at twenty five. He is still stocky, but it’s the solidity of muscle now- he knows that he will never be particularly lithe or lean. His hair is longish, it curls around his ears and makes him look younger than he actually is. He runs his hands over the suit that Luna says makes his eyes stand out. But no matter how much he loves her, she’s not really to be trusted- she also has a theory that her allergies are so bad due to the wrangwungles being particularly rowdy during her birth.

‘Speak of the devil,’ Neville thinks to himself wryly as Luna bustles into his changing room.

She's dressed in a dark grey suit with a bright blue silk hankie tucked into her breast pocket, it’s her attempt at looking like a traditional best man. But she’s also wearing a wreath of lilies, radishes and acorns around her head- it’s her way of staying true to her own highly unique personality.

“Come on,” Luna tugs him close and begins retying his tie “you can’t be late for your own wedding.” They've gone half and half for the wedding, modern dress for the younger generation and traditional robes for the older wizards.

Neville is patient as he stands still in the midst of her frantic activity. He cocks an eyebrow, “You know” he grins “I don’t think I would have picked you for my best man had I known how bossy you would have turned out to be.”

Luna sniffs “I'm your best friend, who would you have picked? And, this wedding has to go off without a hitch.” Her eyes are surprisingly lucid as she winks at him “I’m pretty sure that your intended would have my head on a silver platter if it doesn’t.”

Neville gives her a smile as she starts putting a white lily into his pocket “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” Luna’s eyes are watering slightly “I’m just so happy that this is finally happening for you two.” She cups his cheek with a slightly soggy smile “come on Nev, let’s get you married.”

The guests give him smiles and wave as Neville walks up the aisle decorated with tricolor hibiscus flowers. His side is mostly Gryffindors and Ravenclaws while quite a few Slytherins pepper the seats across them. Neville gives a wave to Narcissa and Andromeda who are sitting together, the tow-headed Teddy is making noisy airplane noises beside them. His hair keeps flickering between the black and blonde of his grandmother and great-aunt and it is somehow the most natural thing in the world.

He stops as he hears raised voices and Luna almost bumps into him.

“Merlin,” he mutters “can’t those two berks stop arguing for my wedding?” Neville sighs and prepares to go and break up the two idiots who look like they’re one stop away from physical violence.

“I’ve got it, I’m pretty sure that it’s my duty to break them up as your best man,” Luna says “go take your place.” She mutters something highly descriptive regarding the Malfoy and Potter bollocks and where they’re about to be shoved into.

Neville grins, they’ve all been so influenced by each other that Faith’s highly colorful language pops up from time to time in the most surprising people.

“Malfoy!” Luna yells out in a snappy tone, “get your hands off Harry’s throat and go take your place back there!” She reaches up and tugs at his bright blonde locks so hard that he gives a yelp of pain.

“Ow! Bloody hell Lovegood, lay off the violence!” he rubs at his head as he ambles back to the back. Though he still manages to turn around and throw Harry a poisonous look.

Luna gives the snickering Harry a slap upside his messily haired head, “you shut up.” She points a finger at Draco's retreating back as she calls out “And you be quiet.” Draco says nothing, only leering at her in return as disappears behind the curtain at the back of the church.

The Slytherin knows enough not to mess with Luna Lovegood, years of close friendship with both Neville and Faith have made her scarily assertive and just plain scary.

Today is the day that Luna sees her best friend get married to the girl of his dreams. She watches the band start playing their instruments as Neville takes a deep breath and Zabini smiles at somebody in the audience.

The music swells and the curtains swings open, the bride taking her first steps into the light of the church. The guests stand up as Faith begins walking down the aisle with Malfoy leading her to the altar. He’s her best friend, he’s her man of honor and Malfoy is giving her away.

Faith looks radiant in a cream, strapless gown. Her long hair is held back with two crystal combs that Narcissa has given her for the wedding. Her smile is luminous, her joy is palpable. Malfoy doesn’t look too bad at her side either, the aristocratic blonde is grinning for all he’s worth as he walks his best friend up to her intended husband, black robes threaded with pure silver thread glimmering with his every step.

Luna takes a breath, letting it out with the thought that _this_ is the culmination of eleven years of history. Everyone has always known how much these two love each other, even when it wasn’t evident to them- it feels like a natural progression of things to see them married. They may not be the most traditional couple in the world but they are definitely one of the happiest.

They are never soppy.

Faith has only said ‘I love you’ three times during their relationship with Neville and he still has trouble saying it out loud to her, Neville confessed during one drunken night at the Leaky- curly hair morose at the thought that his girlfriend wasn't as demonstrative as the women around his mates seemed to be. Luna had smacked him for that, pointing at the slags draped over Ron, Harry and Seamus- clingy to the point of ridiculousness, eyes wide with the wonder of being seen in the company of the wizarding world's heroes and with no idea of who Ron's favorite sibling was- Ginny; who Harry still missed daily-Sirius; or the fact that Seamus was secretly jealous of Dean's relationship and very confused over it.

Neville and Faith had always been famous for being joined at the hip, having been friends first and foremost. And for all of Faith's sometimes shocking displays of affection, her ass-grabbing has become near legendary and Neville has learned never to let his other half walk behind him- they're shockingly sweet with each other around their closest friends.

Luna knows all this. She knows their history inside and out, like an old book that she saw being written, the pages of their relationship learned over and over.

The bride and groom stand with such open and vulnerable smiles on their face that Luna isn’t surprised to see so many people crying. McGonnagal smiles as she reads the bonding rites and feels happy. Behind her, Dean is beaming while Harry looks slightly awestruck that this is really happening and Ron is discretely wiping his eyes with what looks like a lacy handkerchief. On Faith's side, Ginny is grinning widely while Lavender's only recently healed scars, werewolf bites being what they are, stand out starkly on her face in pale pink lines. Luna stifles a smile at the sight of Pansy Parkinson sniffling into her bouquet, dark bobbed head hiding behind the flowers.

Luna catches a shape out of the corner of her eye and isn’t very surprised to see four shadowy shapes watching the proceedings beside her. A tiny blonde, a pixie-ish redhead and a tall man with an eye patch have their eyes glued to Faith and Neville who have begun reciting their vows.

“I give myself to you .”

The fourth man in the shadow group is a man in an eye-blindingly lime green shirt and what looks to be a bowler hat. He is chewing on a piece of plastic and has a huge grin on his face.

“I promise to protect you, your body, your soul, your heart .”

Luna squints and she sees the blonde wiping tears off her cheeks as the redhead grins widely at the proceedings.

“I will be there, no matter what.”

The man with the eye-patch leans over to the redhead and says something that Luna can’t quite catch.

“You are mine and I am yours. For eternity.”

Luna blinks and the shadows start dissipating. They dissolve in a shower of bright pinpricks of light that almost hurt her eyes and she has to hold a hand over her gaze to see them go. The blonde goes first, followed by the redhead and the eye-patch man.

“Ever mine. Ever thine. Ever ours.”

Luna’s heart feels free, happy and soaring as she watches Neville kiss his wife for the first time. The applause is deafening, the Weasley twins are whooping and hollering so loudly that they almost drown out half of their family, Narcissa is hugging her sister and Teddy is jumping up and down beside them. Even Malfoy is grinning at his fellow Slytherins who are too pureblooded to whoop and holler but who are applauding highly enthusiastically.

Kid, Luna hears a voice in her head and turns just in time to see the shadowy man in the bowler hat start to dissolve into those bright lights, he says 'tell her she did good, we’ll all be waiting for her on the other side.'

And then the sun shines brighter as he dissolves into a spark of golden light and Luna can feel the complete happiness, joy and love around her. She tilts her head back and smiles at the sky content.


End file.
